Political Correctness is a Cancer in Our Military

If the Ft. Hood terrorist attack teaches us anything, it should teach us that Political Correctness will kill this country. Every day we find out another example of Major Hasan telegraphed his Islamist intentions and the higher ups in the military did nothing for fear of offending the Muslim community.Beyond the Fort Hood Mass Murderer, we see that our government still interacts with terrorist supporting organizations such as CAIR, Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Muslim Students Association, the Muslim American Society who are all children of the Muslim Brotherhood. We even walked away from the word terrorism for “man made disasters.”

Not all the military is comprised of the heroes that are protecting us from harm. There is a vast uniformed bureaucracy, running, supplying, transporting, feeding etc., the military. Unfortunately this, like all federal bureaucracies is very concerned with self-maintenance, which leads to not making waves, a perfect environment for political correctness.

The writer of the article below is a Colonel (or Navy Captain) stationed in the Washington, D.C. area who desires to keep his identity withheld in order to protect his career. The piece is a warning about how political correctness is cancer in our military:

Political correctness was responsible for the death of thirteen people at Ft. Hood. Of this I am certain. I have watched political correctness at work in the military for more than three decades while serving in two different military branches. I may not have seen it all but, I have seen quite a bit of it.

Aside from academia and the civilian government workforce, there is no place else in America where political correctness is as rampant as military. The rules of political correctness are not listed in military regulations. It is like knowing where to find the chow hall. Everyone just knows.

Press reports indicate Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan grossly misbehaved for years. Not only wasn’t he seriously reprimanded, but he was actually promoted in spite of engaging in behavior that would have quickly ended the careers of others. Many of us who have witnessed similar behavior know what occurred. Hasan’s activities were virtually ignored because he is Muslim.

Politically correctness is a major cancer in today’s military. There are favored minority groups that are given special rights, privileges and treatment not available to non-minorities. Military awards are one example. Sister services — the Navy and Marine Corps — have between them at least 15 awards reserved only for women or minorities including Black Engineer of the Year, National Organization for Mexican American Rights Meritorious Service, and the Society of American-Indian Government Employees awards.

The Army’s hands-off approach toward the Muslim Hasan contrasts significantly with how Defense officials have handled those practicing mainstream religions.

Hasan was a medical professional serving in a sacred role administering to the most vulnerable; yet, he was proselytizing to his patients about Islam. In spite of this, he was twice promoted.

About the same time Hasan was preaching Islam to the wounded, complaints arose of alleged proselytizing by Evangelical Christians at the U.S. Air Force Academy. A major Pentagon task force was dispatched, investigated and found a “perception of religious bias.” Nonetheless, nearly six years after complaints first arose at USAFA, Christian activity at the school is still closely scrutinized.

Military political correctness is rampant much closer to the nation’s capital. The U.S. Naval Academy is to train young adults to serve in the combat arms of the Navy and Marine Corps. However, Superintendent and Vice Admiral Jeffrey Fowler — apparently unaware that the U.S. is engaged in two wars — states his number one priority is to increase diversity.

Fowler is not alone in pumping up multiculturalism. Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen claims diversity is a “strategic imperative.” Following the Ft. Hood massacre, Army Chief of Staff General George Casey was seemingly more concerned about preserving religious diversity in the Army’s ranks than in weeding out soldiers who kill other soldiers.

Naval Academy officials promote the fact that 35% of this year’s freshman class is comprised of favored minority groups: Hispanic, black, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native American. Twenty percent are female. Admissions officials privately acknowledge they are directed to dramatically increase these percentages each year. This should be easy to achieve since about one-half of the admissions department is devoted exclusively to minority recruiting.

This overemphasis on minority recruiting is both misguided and completely unnecessary considering the USNA admissions process. All 100 Senators and each member of the U.S. House representing 435 diverse Congressional districts nominate youngsters. It may be the single-most diversity-focused college acceptance program in the nation.

Still, it does not appear to be enough for USNA officials. Only about one-half of each incoming freshman class is admitted through the Congressional nominating process, giving the school unfettered discretion in picking the other half.

Naval Academy Professor Bruce Fleming, who served on the admissions board, has reported it has an unofficial two-track admissions process in which nonwhite candidates are graded against easier admissions requirements than white candidates. Fleming claims USNA admits some minority students who are incapable of performing college-level work.

Gender-based political correctness has fostered a poisonous atmosphere, according to numerous midshipmen. The previous Superintendent, Vice Admiral Rodney Rempt, implemented a policy unprecedented anywhere else in the entire military.

Female midshipmen who allege they were victims of sexual misconduct would be given blanket immunity for all rules violations in return for identifying alleged perpetrators. The consequence is that females caught violating regulations would immediately allege they were sex victims sometime previously. It became a Get Out of Jail Free card that was abused repeatedly. According to multiple sources, the blanket immunity program is still in effect.

Scores of females who abide by the rules are understandably angered by this discriminatory policy. The unintended consequence is that many male midshipmen will not associate with any females in order to avoid one-day becoming the target of a baseless allegation. This is a classic example of the breakdown of unit cohesion.

Recently, USNA launched a sexual assault response team staffed almost exclusively with female officers. According to a source, the presumption of the team is that males are always the guilty perpetrators and females are always the innocent victims.

Earlier this year, thousands of pages of Navy documents detailing sexual and other misconduct cases were reviewed by The (Annapolis) Capital. The school practiced a double-standard when punishing men and women guilty of identical offenses. Males were frequently dismissed from the academy and sometimes required to reimburse the Navy upwards of $100,000 in school costs while females generally received only light punishment. In one five-year period, every male midshipman accused of sexual assault but acquitted in a military court martial was still kicked out of the academy, a form of double-jeopardy.

Political correctness has led to officially-sanctioned discrimination against non-minorities. Consider the case of the USNA color guard, the six midshipmen who carry the U.S., Navy, Marine Corps and Naval Academy flags during ceremonial events and home football games.

This year, the color guard was invited to perform at game 2 of the World Series in front of a national television audience. However, two of the six midshipmen who had been longtime members of the color guard were fired the day before the game and replaced with two newcomers. The offense, they were told, was being white males. The new members were a female and a first-generation Pakistani-American. One can only wonder if a similar fate will befall the Navy football team before it plays in a nationally-televised New Year’s Eve bowl game.

The Naval Academy makes no effort to hide its bias toward promoting only female and minority faces. The school’s 60-second “Fulfill Your Destiny” recruiting video, which has played prominently on television the past two years, has not one discernible white face in it except in the distant background. The commercial features two Hispanics, two blacks and an Asian. The video is not representative of the actual student body.

The question arises as to what the Naval Academy will do when President Barack Obama follows through on his promise to end the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” prohibition against homosexuals openly serving in the military. Will USNA pursue minimum quotas of male homosexuals, lesbians and transgender students?

Become a Lid Insider

Sign up for our free email newsletter, and we'll make sure to keep you in the loop.